...on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, President Abraham
Lincoln delivered the "Gettysburg Address" at the dedication of the
Soldiers' National Cemetery.

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Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or
any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met
on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion
of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper
that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we
can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living,
rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us- that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion- that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain- that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom- and that government of the people, by
the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

---

It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws
of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of
physics.-Ernest Hemingway

I think America might just have spent all day obsessing over loss of
Twinkies. This is why we're not getting a greatest generation book.-@pourmecoffee

What if the Mayan calendar ends in 5105, and we've just been holding it
upside down?-Aaron Karo

Hostess will sell the rights to all their snack cakes, and Twinkies will
once again pour off the production line of a different company. I
wouldn't be surprised if several years' worth of Twinkies aren't already
stockpiled in a warehouse somewhere. I mean, It's not like they're going
to go stale or anything...

A blonde walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre.
So he gives it to her.

This new thesaurus isn't just terrible, it's also terrible.-Justin
Shanes

If you were born in or after April 1985, you have never experienced a
colder than average month. If you've lived in Pittsburgh during that
period, you've experienced the highest and lowest temperatures on record
as well as the greatest 24-hour rain and snowfall totals. So if grandma
or grandpa start to tell you how bad the weather was when they
were growing up, tell them to stick a sock in it.

It's also interesting to note that in April 1985 Coca-Cola changed its
formula and released New Coke.

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation,
whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion,
and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he
deems it necessary for such a purpose-and you allow him to
make war at pleasure.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed,
is more important than any other one thing.

Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power
have the right to rise up and shake off the existing
government, and form a new one that suits them better.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.
This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from
this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then
we shall find the way.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to
compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the
nominal winner is often a real loser— in fees,
expenses, and waste of time.

Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through
passion and ill temper.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human
nature cannot be changed.

I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise
or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man
who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.

I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he
who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or
false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of
the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.

I do not like that man. I must get to know him
better.

I must stand with anybody that stands right, stand with
him while he is right, and part with him when he goes
wrong.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors;
and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to
be true views.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices
have very few virtues.

Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the
other man, this race and that race and the other race being
inferior and therefore they must be placed in an inferior
position. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one
people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand
up declaring that all men are created equal.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been
a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that
other's consent.

Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can
change public opinion, can change the government,
practically just so much.

Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own
judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be
honest without being a lawyer.

The better part of one's life consists of his
friendships.

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty,
and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so
we must think anew, and act anew.

The man who stands by and says nothing, when the peril of
his government is discussed, can not be misunderstood. If
not hindered, he is sure to help the enemy.

The people of these United States are the rightful
masters of both Congresses and courts, not to overthrow the
Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the
Constitution.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought
not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be
just.

The severest justice may not always be the best
policy.

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any
thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it
have more of evil, than of good.

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in
concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got
into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to
appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the
people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the
existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional
right of amending it or their revolutionary right to
dismember or overthrow it.

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for
themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain
it.

Truth is generally the best vindication against
slander.

Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at
the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to
degrade them.

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same
word we do not all mean the same thing.

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the
future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we
read.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad,
and that is my religion.

When you have an elephant by the hind legs and he is
trying to run away, it's best to let him run.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a
strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it
nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public
sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or
pronounces decisions.

Yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor
cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his
vote, has differed with us. Let us at all times remember
that all American citizens are brothers of a common country,
and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal
feeling.